CANCELLED:
Due to the speaker's unforeseen circumstances this event has been cancelled. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience.
SEAC is hosting a research seminar, chaired by SEAC Director Prof. Hyun Bang Shin on 2nd December 2020. The main speaker will be Dr Marion Sabrié, who will giving a talk on recent developments in Yangon’s urbanisation processes, as well as their impacts on the city’s inhabitants.
Since 2010, the democratization and the accelerated economic openness of Myanmar, changes are taking place in the country and are particularly visible in Yangon’s landscape, the economic capital. Its population is growing, its suburban areas are expanding. As a result of the urban pressure and of the increased influx of nationals and foreign investors, the metropolization is disorganized: scattered construction of new skyscrapers, larger malls, destruction of green spaces, gentrification of the Central Business District, etc. Because of a massive importation of cars, Yangon is also facing many other issues such as severe traffic congestion. Although some Yangonites seem to benefit from the economic openness, how high are the environmental, the cultural and the social costs? Based on the 2014 Census’ data and years of interviews of local and international actors living in Yangon, Dr Marion Sabrié analyses the challenges of the authorities and the Yangonites facing issues in the economic transition.
Speaker & Chair Bio
- Dr Marion Sabrié currently teaches a few courses dedicated to the Geography of Southeast Asia at the Université d'Évry Val-d'Essonne, in France. She was an Assistant-Lecturer at Rouen University in 2017-2018, after holding the same position during the previous year in Paris 13 University. She also used to teach during a few years at the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilisations (INALCO) in Paris. She learnt the Burmese language and dedicated her Master and PhD Theses to Myanmar. She has been traveling there since 2003 and lived in Yangon between 2007 and 2010. Since her experience at the London School of Economics in 2016 in the Cities Lab, her postdoc research focuses on the metropolization of Yangon.
- Prof Hyun Bang Shin is Professor of Geography and Urban Studies in the Department of Geography and Environment and Director of the Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His research centres on the critical analysis of the political economic dynamics of speculative urbanisation, the politics of redevelopment and displacement, gentrification, housing, the right to the city, and mega-events as urban spectacles, with particular attention to cities in Asian countries such as South Korea, China, Vietnam and Singapore. His recent projects on ‘circulating urbanism and (Asian) capital’ have also brought him to work on Quito, Manila, Iskandar Malaysia, Kuwait City and London. Prof Shin has published widely in major international journals and contributed to numerous books on the above themes. He has coauthored Planetary Gentrification (Polity, 2016), edited Anti-Gentrification: What Is to Be Done (Dongnyok, 2017),and co- edited Global Gentrifications: Uneven Development and Displacement (Bristol University Press, 2015) and Neoliberal Urbanism, Contested Cities and Housing in Asia (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019). He is a board member (trustee) of the Urban Studies Foundation, and sits on the international advisory board of the journal Antipode as well as on the editorial board of the journals International Journal of Urban and Regional Research; Urban Geography; CITY; City, Culture and Society; Space and Environment [in Korea]; China City Planning Review [in China].